The Two Daguerreotypes by Oliver Optic

Jim Scroggins, though in the main an honest, peaceable, quiet, harmless, fellow, had a beastly habit of getting drunk whenever a fit opportunity presented itself; and, unfortunately, because "where there is a will there is a way," the opportunities were both fit and frequent.

Jim owned a little farm in the country, which, by his own industry and economy, he had almost paid for. Mrs. Scroggins was a "real worker," and, no doubt, did her full part in buying the homestead. She was endowed with a great deal of energy and good judgment, and people were so malicious as to say that she was the smartest man of the twain. Be this as it may, Mrs. Scroggins was an industrious woman, and took a great deal of pride in the little place, which had been bought by their united industry and economy, and the thought of having it wrested from them by a cold-hearted creditor, was in the highest degree disagreeable; but to such a calamity her husband's infirmity, as the good minister of the village called it, seemed to point.